Kuwait allows expat teachers to travel for school break

Cairo: Kuwaiti authorities have given the nod to expatriate teachers to travel abroad during the mid-year school vacation staring next week, an education source has disclosed to a local newspaper.

The mid-year school vacation in Kuwait has been scheduled for 45 days amid precautions against the spread of COVID-19.

The country’s Education Ministry has allowed teachers to travel and issued directives to schools to give exit approvals for them at the end of the last day of work on Thursday without the need for teachers to check with respective education directorates, the unnamed source told Al Rai newspaper.

“School administrations waited for a decree or an official circular from the public education sector vis-à-vis the exit approval to be generalised to all education directorates in order to protect expat teachers’ exit-and-return rights and spare them any administrative consequences as happened to other teachers stuck abroad,” the source added, referring to travel restrictions in Kuwait prompted by the global coronavirus pandemic that have made it hard for many foreign teachers to return to the country.

According to the ministry’s instructions on allowing teachers’ departure, travellers will bear full responsibility in case of their failure to report back to work at the beginning of the second semester and will be deemed as absence from work.

In August, Kuwait banned flights with dozens of “high-risk” countries, citing concerns over COVID-19 spread.

The source did not clarify if teachers from the hitherto-banned countries will board direct or transit flights to fly home from Kuwait.